Apple hits back at Motorola with multitouch patent suit

Emma Woollacott, 1st November 2010

The patent battle between Apple and Android vendors is hotting up, with a new lawsuit from Apple alleging that Mororola has infringed its intellectual property with its touch-screen phones, including the Droid line.

First reported by Patently Apple, the two lawsuits claim that Motorola has infringed six different patents relating to some of its most important technologies.

The move follows a patent suit from Motorola a month ago, claiming that Apple had infringed 18 of its patents, covering wireless and other technologies. It went on to claim that Apple's multitouch patents were invalid, and asked a federal judge to throw them out.

The current crop of disputed patents aren't the same ones, which Apple also sued HTC over earlier this year.

The odds are, of course, that the battle will end as it generally does with the two companies coming to some sort of agreement over licensing. Indeed, it appears that the current legal jamboree arises from the breakdown of licensing talks between the two companies earlier this year.